1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a floor structure on a driver side of a vehicle where a control pedal adapted to be depressedly operated by a driver seated in a driver seat is arranged at a front of a passenger compartment.
2. Description of the Background Art
Heretofore, there has been known a driving posture adjusting system for a vehicle, which comprises seat-position adjusting means adapted to adjust a position of a seating surface of a seat, floor-panel position adjusting means adapted to adjust a vertical position of a floor panel (movable floor) for allowing a passenger who intends to operate a pedal to place his/her foot thereon, and manually-operated driving-posture adjusting means adapted to allow the passenger to manually operate the two means, whereby both needs for setting an adequate driving posture and ensuring forward visibility can be satisfied, irrespective of a difference in passenger's body size, while allowing the adequate driving posture to be obtained even if an adjustable distance of the seat in a frontward-rearward (i.e., longitudinal) direction of the vehicle is relatively small, and a height position of the floor can be adjusted to ensure adequate pedal operability, as disclosed, for example, in JP 2005-145405A (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).
There has also been known an operation assist device for a foot-operated pedal, which comprises a pedal base mounted on a floor surface of a passenger compartment of a vehicle to allow a heel of an operating-foot to be placed thereon, wherein the pedal base has a depressing-operation supportive shape portion formed to keep the heel of the operating-foot in a supported state in the entire movable range of the foot-operated pedal, so as to prevent the heel of the operating-foot from being uplifted relative to the pedal base, to allow a pedal-depressing operation to be stably performed, as disclosed in JP 2007-109162A (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2).
In the driving posture adjusting system disclosed in the Patent Document 1, the driver seat can be moved in the longitudinal direction by the seat-position adjusting means, depending on a body height of a driver to be seated in the driver seat, and correspondingly a vertical position and an inclination angle of a seat cushion can be adjusted. This makes it possible to adequately depress a control pedal, such as an accelerator pedal or a brake pedal, arranged in front of the driver seat, while keeping a seated posture of a driver seated in the driver seat, comfortable, and adjust the driver's seated posture to adequately ensure forward visibility. In addition, when a driver seated in the driver seat is changed to another person having a different body height, and thereby body sizes, such as a leg length and a sole size, are changed, a vertical position of the movable floor can be adjusted by the floor-panel position adjusting means, depending on the change in body sizes. This provides an advantage of being able to adjust a control-pedal depressing characteristic to allow a ball region of a sole of a driver to be adequately brought into contact with a pedal surface of the control pedal under a condition that a heel of the driver is placed on the floor panel.
However, in the driving posture adjusting system comprising the seat-position adjusting means adapted to adjust a longitudinal position of a driver seat and a vertical position and an inclination angle of a seat cushion, and the floor-panel position adjusting means adapted to adjust a vertical position of a movable floor, there are problems, such as structural complexity in required adjusting devices, and high production cost. In particular, it is necessary to install the floor-panel position adjusting means in a narrow space defined between the movable floor and a floor panel located beneath the movable floor. This involves a problem, such as difficulty in sufficiently ensuring the installation space. Moreover, even if the vertical position of the movable floor is adjusted to a desired position, pedal operability for a driver will be changed under an influence of adjustment of the position and the angle of the driver seat by the seat-position adjusting means. Thus, it is extremely difficult to adjust all the position and the angle of the driver seat and the vertical position of the movable floor to respective desired positions.
In the operation assist device disclosed in the Parent Document 2, the depressing-operation supportive shape portion formed on an upper surface of the pedal base attached to a lower portion of the foot-operated pedal is configured to have a first sole-placement surface extending obliquely downwardly in a rearward direction of the vehicle, and a second sole-placement surface with an inclination angle relative to a floor surface, greater than that that of the first sole-placement surface, and a breadth in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, less than that of the first sole-placement surface. In this case, during a depressing operation of the foot-operated pedal, a catching portion made up of the first sole-placement surface and the second sole-placement surface can prevent a heel of an operator from being displaced in a frontward direction of the vehicle. This provides an advantage of being able to effectively stabilize operability of the foot-operated pedal.
In this operation assist device, when a driver seated in a driver seat is changed to another person having a different body height, and thereby a seated position and a seated posture are changed, it is also desirable to adjust a height position of the catching portion for placing a heel thereon. However, this point is not considered in the Patent Document 2 at all, and the operability of the foot-operated pedal is likely to become worse due to the presence of the pedal base.